Trump Approves New Sanctions Against Russia – “Trade War Declared”

President Donald Trump signed a law that imposes new sanctions against Russia and restricts Trump’s ability to ease sanctions against Moscow

This bill is among the first major documents that was sent to Trump’s office; it gives Congress new veto power to keep him from removing Russia sanctions.

The White House declared that the bill includes “a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions” that “purport to displace the President’s exclusive constitutional authority to recognize foreign governments, including their territorial bounds.”

However, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev did not react well, as expected, saying that the bill showed a “fully-fledged trade war (has been) declared against Russia” and that “the Trump administration demonstrated complete impotence, in the most humiliating manner, transferring executive powers to Congress.”

A Doubtful Bill

Trump expressed his own doubts regarding the legislation, saying that “The bill remains seriously flawed — particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate.”

“Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking. By limiting the executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people, and will drive China, Russia, and North Korea much closer together,” he said in a statement.

He ended his declaration by saying that: “I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars. That is a big part of the reason I was elected. As President, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress.”

In a Facebook post, Medvedev said that there is no hope left in improving the relations between Washington and Kremlin, adding his thoughts about Trump: “incompetent player (who) must be eliminated.”

Furthermore, Russia’s Prime Minister also predicted that the future relations between the two countries “will be extremely tense, regardless of the Congress line up or the personality of the President.”